I am starting this thread partly out of personal interest and partly on behalf of fellow forum "Kd did" who posted the following request in another thread:

Quote:

On the topic of adrenal fatigue...

Since my thyroid levels now "technically" fall in the normal range, I should be all fixed. However, I still feel terrible. I mentioned the possibility of adrenal fatigue to my doctor, and he wouldn't hear it. I dropped the issue, and continued in my misery. I recently injured my back, and began seeing a chiropractor. He did some fancy body scan, and told me I was likely suffering from adrenal fatigue as well a couple of other less serious issues. I was shocked to say the least. He gave me a bottle of supplements to help, but they made me feel terrible each time I attempted to take them.

I know this thread has gotten way off topic, but I was wondering if other people with adrenal issues could share how they had fixed their problem. Thanks in advance!

As the thread this was posted in was actually related to a different topic, it seems only sensible to start a new thread especially for this subject.

I would also be interested in hearing other people's experiences.

I do believe that I have also been suffering from "moderate" adrenal fatigue, but am fairly confident that I am on the way to healing my adrenal glands by following most of the advice in Dr Diana Schwarzbein's book, "The Schwarzbein Principle II: The Transition".

Here are some of the tips I have tried out successfully: reducing caffeine the slow and easy way. Dr S recommends that, if you have adrenal fatigue, that you do NOT go cold turkey on caffeine as you will suffer from extreme fatigue if you do so. I can back this up!!! I tried to reduce my caffeine too quickly and had exactly that problem.

She recommends that you reduce your caffeine intake week by week, but that was too quick for me to adapt to (I have been drinking a lot of coffee, daily, for the last 20 years, so I'm pretty much caffeine-dependent). I have done my system month-by-month, and have just reduced gradually.

Month one: I made up a mix of 75% caffeinated coffee, 25% decaf, then after a month of that, I went down to 66% caffeinated coffee, 33% decaf (i.e. I just plonked in two scoops of caffeinated to one scoop of decaf in a special container with my coffee in it). I am now on a 50/50 mix and doing fine! I had actually intended to go down to a mix of 33% caffeinated and 66% decaf at the beginning of December, but after I had that for a couple of days, I could feel the fatigue beginning to drag me down again, so I decided to stay on the 50/50 mix till after Christmas - right now I need all the energy I can find!!!

I absolutely believe that this is an absolutely essential step to healing your adrenals as your caffeine intake influences so many biochemical processes in your body in very negative ways. It is absolutely central!!! If you have too much coffee, you piddle out your magnesium supplies, which your adrenals need (and so do lots of other body parts!!!). It keeps your adrenaline levels boosted longer than they would normally be, so you are in constant fight-or-flight mode, which - naturally - wears your adrenals out even more.

Even though I am by no means caffeine-free and am definitely still caffeine-dependent, this 50% reduction of my caffeine intake, coupled with taking chelated magnesium, has definitely made me less hyper, less frantic and breathless as I go about my daily housewifely chores. My concentration and short-term memory are also much much better. I no longer have this fuzzy head and feel more focused and relaxed. I am definitely going to carry on with the caffeine-reduction programme for these reasons: life is so much more pleasant these days!!! Not getting wound up and stressed out so much about life's little annoyances is definitely worth the effort!!!

This doesn't really apply to me, but I thought that this is an interesting related tid bit. I don't drink caffeinated drinks anymore (been about 6 months), but I did drink about 4 cups of coffee this weekend. I got bad calf cramps which I think is the magnesium depeltion or maybe it effected my adrenals?

This doesn't really apply to me, but I thought that this is an interesting related tid bit. I don't drink caffeinated drinks anymore (been about 6 months), but I did drink about 4 cups of coffee this weekend. I got bad calf cramps which I think is the magnesium depeltion or maybe it effected my adrenals?

It would definitely support the case that caffeine depletes your magnesium supplies, for sure!!!

Hope to chat with you later - got to go and play Monopoly with my folks now!!!

According to my Natureopathic Doctor, I have severe adrenal fatigue. She's supporting my adrenals with whole food supplements that contain bovine adrenals, and amino acid therapy. Seems to be improving energy somewhat. At least, I've had no ill effects.

Quote:

Originally Posted by amandawood

I do believe that I have also been suffering from "moderate" adrenal fatigue, but am fairly confident that I am on the way to healing my adrenal glands by following most of the advice in Dr Diana Schwarzbein's book, "The Schwarzbein Principle II: The Transition".

I've read the first book. Guess I should really pick up this one.

Glad I don't drink coffee. Good luck with your continuing decrease.

My enemy seems to be everything sweet. I suspect I may have candida yeast overgrowth contributing to adrenal stress. Have been on a Schwartzbein/Metabolic Typing/Body Ecology Diet mix for a couple weeks now. We'll see if it helps.

I don't have much else to add at the moment, and really should be getting some sleep now. Sleep, it's essential for adrenal health they tell me.

I don't know anything about adrenal gland fatigue, but I agree with Amanda about caffeine having a negative effect on the body. I drank coffee for over 40 years and finally realized that it was contributing to my irregular heartbeat (though unfortunately it wasn't the cause ) it made my breasts hurt because of fibrocystic breast 'disease', it made me edgy and fidgety and ruined my sleep. So even though I absolutely love coffee, I had to get off the caffeine.

I did it exactly the same way you did Amanda, by making a mix of caffeinated and decaffeinated coffees, slowly decreasing regular coffee and increasing decaf. Now I am on straight decaf and finally the headaches are gone. It took a long time to make the change and I still miss the flavor and kick of regular coffee, but its not worth the way caffeine effects me.

One thing I have to advise though... when you do get off caffeine, be very careful about ordering coffee in a restaurant. There have been quite a few times when I thought I was drinking decaf only to find myself feeling jittery in an hour or so and completely unable to sleep that night. I miss lingering over a cup of coffee while visiting with a friend and I haven't found a suitable substitute when I'm at a restaurant, but I have decided not to order coffee any more because the person who serves it really doesn't care whether you get regular or decaf.

I have the book you recommend Amanda, Schwarzbein's 2nd book, but I have not read it yet. That will be the first book I read in 2010. Happy New Year!!

My adrenals have gotten pretty much exhausted, I'm on Prednisone right now though not permanently I hope....

Things I have learned via research on the internet....

Intake of vitamins including enough B vitamins, taking fish oil, cutting out the caffeine (wish I knew you were supposed to do it gradually though!), also I've gotten some adrenal support supplements which I'm continuing and used isocort before I started on the Prednisone, enough vitamin C is a big thing as well.....cutting the stress out and getting enough rest......getting enough calcium/magnesium etc......

From what I've read, people with severe adrenal fatigue use small doses of hydrocortisone to give their adrenals sort of a vacation.

I slightly over-produce cortisol (had a 24-hour saliva test done) and so I take a couple of astralgus (herb) and relora. The astralgus supposedly evens out your cortisol levels and relora will lower them. Usually I take the relora at night to help with my sleep.

I was on the small doses of hydrocortisone treatment for about 4 months and did feel better pus my thyroid replacement seemed to work better. But then DH got laid off, lost health insurance, etc. Luckily I had enough left to slowly wean off the hydrocortisone. Surprisingly, I think the 4-month treatment might have been just about right for me. I've had no ill effects after stopping.

An excellent book on the subject is William McK. Jeffries "Safe Uses of Cortisol."

I was on the small doses of hydrocortisone treatment for about 4 months and did feel better pus my thyroid replacement seemed to work better. But then DH got laid off, lost health insurance, etc. Luckily I had enough left to slowly wean off the hydrocortisone. Surprisingly, I think the 4-month treatment might have been just about right for me. I've had no ill effects after stopping.

An excellent book on the subject is William McK. Jeffries "Safe Uses of Cortisol."

That is interesting!!!

When I come back from vacation in September and when the kids and my DH are back at school, I am going to check out a doctor I found who does "hormone analysis".

I am getting confused - again!!! - about all this thyroid/adrenal business. One set of people say, "Get your adrenals fixed before you embark on thyroid treatment!" and now I have heard from "neanderpam" that what I think might be adrenal fatigue is in fact caused by my thyroid tanking my adrenals.

Amanda, I don't know who's right either, but I'm leaning toward NeanderPam. Mainly because it doesn't make sense to me to withhold thyroid if you're body isn't making any or enough, whether adrenals need help or not.

It seems like the adrenals' job would actually benefit by closer to normal thyroid levels. Everything is inter-related, and a malfunctioning thyroid can't be beneficial to adrenals. Just saying :-)

Amanda, I don't know who's right either, but I'm leaning toward NeanderPam. Mainly because it doesn't make sense to me to withhold thyroid if you're body isn't making any or enough, whether adrenals need help or not.

It seems like the adrenals' job would actually benefit by closer to normal thyroid levels. Everything is inter-related, and a malfunctioning thyroid can't be beneficial to adrenals. Just saying :-)

Thanks for your input!!!

I really don't want to find out that I have a malfunctioning thyroid, though, but I am going to have to force myself to get some tests done again, I can accept that - just very very unwillingly...